The Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), also known as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group, is a non-profit scientific and educational association that is affiliated with the International Union of Biological Sciences. TDWG was formed to establish international collaboration among biological database projects and related services. Promoting the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the World's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large, TDWG focuses on the development of standards for the exchange of biological/biodiversity data. TDWG promotes the use of standards through the most appropriate and effective means and acts as a forum for discussion through holding meetings and through publications, especially the recently launched open access journal, Biodiversity Information Standards and Science. This presentation will focus on areas of possible collaboration by the larger networked information community around bioinformatic standards, areas where TDWG collaborates with other biodiversity organizations such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

1. 12 December 2017
Washington, DC
The Biodiversity
Information
Standards (TDWG):
Opportunities for
Collaboration and
Participation
Martin R. Kalfatovic
TDWG Fundraising and Partnerships
Subcommittee, Chair
Contributions from:
 Wouter Addink
TDWG Europe Regional
Representative
 Dimitris Koureas
TDWG Chair
 James A Macklin
TDWG Deputy Chair

2. TDWG
Mission
Develop, adopt and promote standards and guidelines
for the recording and exchange of data about
organisms
Promote the use of standards through the most
appropriate and effective means and
Act as a forum for discussion through holding meetings
and through publications
Image by : opensource.com

3. What TDWG does ...
TDWG Standards assist biodiversity organizations and research
institutions around the world to:
► Increase data collection and collation efficiency
► Enhance institutional profiles through Internet discovery
► Further research, conservation and management goals by
raising data visibility and integration
► Enhance opportunities for collaboration on international
biodiversity projects
► Cost-effectively manage and share natural history data
► Minimize ‘reinvention of the wheel’
► Provide a stimulating environment for the development of
leading edge Internet tools and techniques

4. What is a standard?
► In common English:
- A flag
- An upright pole or beam
- A backing for currency
- American automobile
- A bush on a long stalk
- An ideal to be judged against
- Model of authorisation of excellence
- A basis for comparison
- 1,980 board feet of wood
- A newspaper
- An established norm
A technical standard is an established norm or requirement in
regard to technical systems. It is usually a formal document that
establishes uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods,
processes and practices. (Wikipedia)

5. TDWG Standards
Categories
Technical specification
Protocol, service, procedure, format
Applicability statement
How a technical specification might be applied
Best current practice
A description for good behavior
Data standard
Content or controlled vocabularies

6. TDWG Standards Process
► TDWG standards are:
- Consensus
- Community wide (+/-)
- Voluntary (But we have a TDWG Community
Support Fund to support working meetings or
dissemination of results)

7. Task Group
Create
Standard
Interest
Group
Ratification
process
Maintain
Standard
TAG
Guard
interoperability
of the standard
Draft
Standard
New
Standard
+ Primer
+ CC-BY
+Charter
+Charter
Create
Task Group
How we create a standard
Create
Interest Group
1
2
3
4
5
6
TAG
Retire
Standard
7

8. Group forming and
collaboration
► Interest Groups or Task Groups are formed by creating a
Charter, that defines the convenor (first contact), core
members, motivation, guidance how to become involved
and a summary of what standard or guideline the group
wants to achieve.
► Github (https://github.com/tdwg) is the main
collaboration platform (adopted in 2014) and used to
host and version the standards. TDWG also provides a few
mailinglists for communication
Current TDWG groups:
https://github.com/orgs/tdwg/teams

9. TDWG
Standard
Ratification
Process

10. TDWG Standard Statuses
► Current Standard
- Standards that TDWG recommends for use.
► Current Standard (2005)
- Standards that TDWG recommends for use, but not
(yet) compliant with the standards development
process adopted I 2006.
► Draft Standard
- Standard under review
► Prior Standard
- Standards that were ratified prior to 2005 and that
are not currently being promoted for ratification
under the post 2006 ratification proces
► Retired Standard
- Standards that have been ratified by TDWG in the
past but that are no longer recommended.

11. Current TDWG Standards
► Darwin Core (DwC) - occurrences
► Access to Biological Data v2.6 (ABCD) - occurrences
► Audubon Core – media metadata
► TDWG Access Protocol for Information Retrieval (TAPIR) –
exchange protocol
► Structured Descriptive Data (SDD) – taxonomic
descriptions
► Taxonomic Concept Transfer Schema (TCS) –taxon
concepts
► Delta Format – taxonomic descriptions

12. …and Standards to support
the standardisation
process…
► TDWG Standards Documentation Standard
► Vocabulary Maintenance Standard

13. Who is the TDWG
community?
► TDWG is a global community ...xkcd.com

14. Who is the TDWG
community?
Specimens Taxonomy
Information
Management
Knowledge
Agriculture
DNA data
► Intersection of
many domains
► Biologists, taxonomists, computer
scientists, each with something
to offer to each other’s domains
xkcd.com

15. Who is the TDWG
community really?
► Frustrated taxonomists
- Looking for a better way
- Largely self taught
► Bored computer scientists
- Looking for excitement, challenge
► Misfits and visionaries
- In search of a ‘Brave New World’
► Egomaniacs
- In search of glory, fame, power, riches

16. Members and Users
Our members are a diverse mix
of biologists, computer
scientists, bioinformaticians,
taxonomists, ecologists,
librarians, geoscientists…
Our standards are used by museums,
botanical gardens, research departments,
government agencies and organizations
who work with any type of biological data.
125+ individual members
20 institutional members

17. TDWG: A growing
community of highly
collaborative people
 Klik om de modelstijlen te bewerken
 Tweede niveau
 Derde niveau
 Vierde niveau
 Vijfde niveau
A.H. Ariño et al: TDWG Now and Then, TDWG , Costa Rica, 7-XII-2016

19. Interest Groups
► Biodiversity Data Quality
► -Framework
► -Tools, Services &
► Workflows
-Use Case Library
Biodiversity Informatics
Curriculum
►
► Annotations, Attribution
Natural Collections
► Descriptions
Genomic Biodiversity ,
Phylogenetics
►
► Imaging
► Invasive Species
Biological Descriptions, Species
information
►
► Literature
► Taxon Names & Concepts
► Observation and Specimen
Records
-ABCD
-DarwinCore (DwC)
-Observations(OBS)
► Citizen Science
► Paleobiology

20. TDWG’s History
► A not-for-profit organization that started as the Taxonomic
Database Working Group in 1985, Frank Bisby as its first chair.
► Initially formed to establish international collaboration among
biological database projects, to promote the wider and more
effective dissemination of information about the world's
heritage of biological organisms.
► It was accepted as a Commission of the International Union of
Biological Sciences (IUBS) in October 1988
► Initially focusing on plant taxonomic databases, it expanded
its scope to over all taxonomic databases in 1994.
► In 2005-2007 the infrastructure for supporting standards
development was modernized with funding from the Gordon
and Betty Moore Foundation.
► In 2006 the scope was changed into developing standards
for sharing biodiversity data
► In 2017, nearing completion of the process of becoming an
official non-profit organization in the US and Europe.
earlyhistoryrecent

21. TDWG development
phases
► Phase 0 (1985)
- Seemed like a good idea at the time
► Phase 1 (first decade)
- Data dictionaries, data models
► Phase 2 (second decade)
- ER models, DIGIR, DwC, XML, etc.
► Phase 3 (third decade)
- Schemas, ontologies, RDF
► Phase 4 (Now)
- Re-evaluating prior standards and developing
infrastructure to support documentation and
vocabulary maintenance of existing standards
- TDWG is partnering with Global and regional Data
Infrastructures (GBIF, iDigBio, ALA and others) which
can aid the standards development providing
leadership, expertise and tools
Interpretation from a presentation by J. Croft, TDWG, 2008

22. What drives the TDWG
community?
► Untangle the ‘Biodiversity Babel’
► Develop common communication
► Harness efficiency of collaboration
► Economic pressures to reduce duplication

23. Governance
• Chair
• Deputy Chair
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Technical Architecture Group
• Fundraising and Partnerships
• Infrastructure
• Outreach and Communications
• Time and Place
Core Officers
Subcommittee Chairs
• Africa
• Asia
• Europe
• Latin America
• North America
• Oceania
Regional Representatives
• Conference Program
Committee Co-Chair
• TDWG Coordinator
Co-opted Members (Non-Voting)
Executive Committee

24. Governance
Executive Committee Functional Subcommittees
Task Groups (temporary)Interest Groups (long term)
• Core Officers
• Co-opted Members
• Subcommittee Chairs
• Regional
Representatives
• Fundraising and Partnerships
• Infrastructure Subcommittee
• Outreach and Communications
• Time and Place Subcommittee
• BDQ Framework
• BDQ Tools, Services &
Workflows
• BDQ Use Case Library
• Biodiversity Data Quality (BDQ)
• Species Information
• Biodiversity Informatics
Curriculum (BDIC)
• …
• Plinian Core
• Invasive Species
• Technical Architecture Group(TAG)

25. Data Infrastructures need
TDWG standards...
Occurrence
Specimen
Taxon
Concept
Taxon
Interaction
Taxon Name
Publication
TraitCollection
Sequence
Gene
• Maintain catalogues of class instances
• Identify and unite related/identical instances
• Communicate to resolve/harden links
between instances
• Serve as hubs for curation and annotation
… To deliver
linked global
biodiversity
knowledgebase

26. A rich, loose environment
of shifting topics
Emerging Terms
A.H. Ariño et al: TDWG Now and Then, TDWG , Costa Rica, 7-XII-2016

27. Global Biodiversity
Knowledgebase*
Client 1
Client 2 Data 2 Data 2
* a graph with linked data objects that
allows heterogeneous data from multiple
sources to be linked and used by
different clients and services
TDWG Standards help in the development of the
Global Biodiversity Knowledgebase

28. L
Catalogue
of Life
L
Barcode
of Life
L
Encyclopedia
of Life LTreebase
LiDigBio
LGBIF
L
Biodiversity
Heritage
Library
L
Atlas of
Living
Australia
Services registry
& PIDs
Data standards
& ontology
Transport standards
& protocols
Global
Biodiversity
Knowledgebase

29. Today
• Disconnected publishing and use
• Limited feedback
• Poor ability to reference data
Future?
• Stable, connected data from all
sources
• Collaborative management
• Continuous step-wise
improvement
A.Hahn and D. Hobern: A Standards Architecture for Integrating Information in Biodiversity Science
Towards a Global
Biodiversity Knowlegebase

30. Occurrence
Specimen
Taxon
Concept
Taxon
Interaction
Taxon Name
Publication
TraitCollection
Sequence
Gene
Data standards
& ontology
Transport standards
& protocols
Persistent Identifiers
Areas for standards

31. Annual Conferences
A.H. Ariño et al: TDWG Now and Then, TDWG , Costa Rica, 7-XII-2016

32. What are TDWG
conferences like now ...
Typically a mixture of forums:
 Symposia: Sessions with talks dedicated to a topic
 Workshops: Discussion-based, typically related to
standards development
 Computer demonstrations: Implementation of
standards in software
 Interest Group meetings: Members discuss tasks
that are underway

33. Conference Evolution
1985: 9 attendees talking about harmonizing
taxonomical databases
2017: large conference about anything
around biodiversity data

34. Conferences Overview
Prof. Heywood about the first TDWG meeting held in 1985 in
Geneva: “It provided a stimulating discussion amongst a dozen
or so participants, punctuated by the elegant hospitality of Prof.
Bocquet and colleagues”
1985 Geneva Switzerland
1986 Pittsburgh USA
1987 Edinburgh Scotland
1988 St Louis USA
1989 Las Palmas Gran Canaria
1990 Delphi Greece
1991 Canberra Australia
1992 Xalapa Mexico
1993 Washington USA
1994 Paris France
1995 Madrid Spain
1996 Toronto Canada
1997 Taipei Taiwan
1998 Reading England
1999 Harvard USA
2000 Frankfurt Germany
2001 Sydney Australia
2002 Campinas Brazil
2003 Lisbon Portugal
2004 Christchurch New Zealand
2005 St Petersburg Russia
2006 St Louis USA
2007 Bratislava Slovakia
2008 Fremantle Australia
2009 Montpellier France
2010 Woods Hole USA
2011 New Orleans USA
2012 Beijing China
2013 Florence Italy
2014 Jönköping Sweden
2015 Nairobi Kenya
2016 Santa Clara de San
Carlos
Costa Rica
2017 Ottawa Canada

35. TDWG 2018
Dunedin, New Zealand

36. TDWG
Peer-Reviewed Journal
► BISS launched in October 2017...

37. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS) is an
innovative open access journal publishing abstracts related
to biodiversity standards, methods, guidelines, models and
applications in biodiversity informatics submitted to
Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) for presentation
at annual meetings.
The journal also publishes conventional research articles.
They will only be considered if they illustrate the
development or application of new methods and approaches
in biodiversity informatics in the form of case studies.
TDWG
Peer-Reviewed Journal

38. TDWG Achievements
► >1.000.000.000 occurrence records exchanged with
TDWG standards
► Used by over 1000 data publishers worldwide
► TDWG standards enabled the exchange of natural history
and biodiversity data and are the basis of the current
global (GBIF) and regional data infrastructures
► 25 standards produced by our volunteers

39. TDWG Achievements
► TDWG standards are globally adopted in the natural
sciences community and also used to exchange data
from natural sciences with other domains, like cultural
heritage (Europeana)
► Recommended and supported by influential global and
regional organisations and initiatives in the natural
sciences and biodiversity domain, e.g. GBIF, iDigBio, ALA,
BioCASe.
► More than 30 global annual conferences have been
organised, attended by thousands of participants from
taxonomists to data scientists.
► A true community effort in which hundreds of volunteers
worked together on TDWG publications that have been
cited by thousands of authors

40. Priorities for the future
► High-level meta-model
- Essential data classes for biodiversity informatics
- Key relationships between class instances
► Mandatory and recommended properties
- Revision of existing TDWG vocabularies
- Some generic terms independent of data class
- Others tied to a specific data class
► Serialisation models
- Guidance on sharing data in different formats
- Best practice for denormalised data exchange
► GUID schemes and HTTP URIs
- Best practice to support and manage linking data

41. Our challenges
► Developing effective standards is not easy
► Involves people with different interests and
perspectives – also need to deal with conservatism,
rivalries, egos...
► Involves complex areas of knowledge – trivial issues
are not trivial...
► Involves multiple disciplines – experts from different
areas need to understand each other
► Information Technology evolves very quickly –
standards can soon become obsolete!
► TDWG needs more resources to facilitate rapid
development of effective standards

42. How to Participate
► Take a look at the TDWG website (tdwg.org) … see
anything interesting? Dig in deeper – registering on the site
is free

43. How to Participate
► Individual Membership: US$75 / Year
 Participate in the primary international forum for solving problems in biodiversity information
management.
 Develop international standards and protocols that enable individuals and organizations to
exchange and integrate biodiversity information.
 Have full access to the TDWG Online Environment, the annual meetings, and a dynamic
learning environment.
 Receive information that will help you track the rapidly developing world of biodiversity
informatics.
 Be part of a knowledgeable and welcoming community of enthusiasts dedicated to expanding
and sharing biodiversity information.
 Learn about new developments that will make your institution more effective and efficient in
accessing, managing, and publishing biodiversity data.
 Comment on new standards, protocols, procedures and vote on constitutional matters.
Individual membership is open to anyone. TDWG develops international
standards that enable the open sharing of the world's biodiversity data.
These standards are therefore crucial to the management and preservation
of the life of the planet. TDWG needs your expertise and experience to
improve the sharing of these data.

44. How to Participate
► Institutional Membership: US$500 / Year
Institutional membership of TDWG is open to any organization, company
or government agency. Institutional members are agencies that use or
support TDWG standards.
 The annual meeting draws an extremely broad cross-section of the community together.
Bioinformatics specialists, biologists, information scientists, botanists, curators, librarians and
a host of others present their work at this meeting. Meeting people from similar institutions to
your own can be an enlightening experience.
 Thousands of agencies receiving, managing and distributing biodiversity data use TDWG's
standards and therefore should contribute to the development, testing and deployment of
those standards.
 Membership provides an opportunity for staff members to maintain an awareness of advances
in bioinformatics and bring these advances into their institution.
 Institutions can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by adopting advances from other
TDWG institutional members. Don't reinvent the wheel. Read how the Chicago Botanic
Garden achieved a better outcome and saved thousands of dollars on the Testimonials page.
 You would be supporting a non-profit, volunteer organization. An organization that is
producing international standards that provide the infrastructure that helps to manage the
planet's biodiversity.

45. 12 December 2017
Washington, DC
Martin R. Kalfatovic
TDWG Fundraising and Partnerships
Subcommittee, Chair
Contributions from:
 Wouter Addink
TDWG Europe Regional
Representative
 Dimitris Koureas
TDWG Chair
 James A Macklin
TDWG Deputy Chair
Thank
You